ABOVE VIDEO:Florida Tech head coach Steve Englehart celebrates the Panthers’ historic win over the 12h ranked Tarleton State Texans last Saturday at AT&T Stadium – home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas. It is the first time in Florida Tech’s first two years of football competition that the Panthers came out victorious against a ranked opponent.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Things are at an all-time high for the Florida Tech football program as the Panthers are coming off a victory over No. 12 Tarleton State at AT&T Stadium to give the team its best start in the program’s first two years of football competition at 3-0.
Xavier Milton, above, attempts to avaid the pursuit of a Tarleton State defender. (Florida Tech image)
The Panthers will try to ride that wave as they head to Municipal Stadium in Daytona Beach, Florida to do battle with the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.
Trevor Sand was a wrecking ball in the FIT backfield against Tarleton State, bouncing off would-be tacklers on his way to a school-record 152 yards and three touchdowns.
Trevor Sand
Mark Cato continued his impressive start to his career at FIT, connecting on 24 of 37 passes for a career-best 296 yards and two scores.
Nearly half of those completions went to Xavier Milton, who hauled in 10 receptions for 139 yards. Gabe Hughes was the other Panther pass-catcher to top the century mark, totaling 104 yards on just three catches.
Steve Englehart
“It’s a great opportunity for us to play a Division I FCS opponent here in the state of Florida,” head coach Steve Englehart said.
“It’s a great opportunity for our young men and it’s a challenge that they’ve been looking forward to for quite some time. Bethune-Cookman is a very good FCS program, Coach Jenkins has done an unbelievable job with that program over the last several years. They’ll be a potential playoff team again this year. They are fast and physical, we’ll certainly have our hands full on Saturday.”
J.J. Sanders returned to action for the Panthers with a fury. The Columbus, Ohio native was seemingly all over the field, recording a team-high 12 tackles and 3.5 tackles for a loss, the most in FIT history.
The junior linebacker also made arguably the biggest play of the game, forcing a late fumble that allowed the Panthers to seal the victory. Chris Stapleton put forth his usual workman-like effort, bringing in 12 tackles and a fumble recovery to bolster the FIT defense. The Panthers also recorded a pair of interceptions in the game, with Manny Abad and Tyler Rosenblatt doing the honors.
The Wildcats are coming off of a 41-7 pounding at the hands of UCF in Orlando. BCU took an early 7-3 advantage before allowing 38 straight points by the Knights.
Jerry Durney
Quentin Williams was the Wildcats’ top-performer in the game, passing for 102 yards on 9 of 12 passing, while also adding 32 yards on the ground. On the season, Bethune-Cookman is 2-1 with victories over Florida International and Grambling State. The Wildcats are currently ranked No. 14 in Division I FCS.
With the exception of this Saturday’s contest, FIT football games can be heard on the Panthers’ new Official Radio Partner WFIT 89.5 FM. Jerry Durney and Paul Van Scott will start Saturday’s broadcast with a pregame show at 3:30 p.m. ET. All remaining eight Panther games, including the Bethune-Cookman game, can also be heard at WFIT.org and the free TuneIn Radio app. A link to WFIT’s live broadcast is listed to the right.
Live video and stats for Saturday’s action can be found HERE. To access the live video stream of the game, fans will need a one-day pass to BCU’s CatEye Network, which can be purchased for $7.95.
Fans can keep up with Florida Tech football by following the team’s social media accounts on Twitter at http://twitter.com/FLTechFootball, on Instagram at http://instagram.com/FLTechFootball and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/floridatechfootball.
